RIM PlayBook

Evernote is making some changes today, and sweeping out the unneeded bits in a bout of Spring (Winter?) cleaning. Saying “there’s a natural lifecycle to technology at some point”, Evernote is shutting down a few apps, and ending support for some platforms that — well, we’re honestly surprised Evernote still had users for. If you use either Hello or Peek, you’ve got until February 7th to find a new method. Additionally, those on BlackBerry 7 and/or the BlackBerry PlayBook will need to find a new digital home for their notes.

If you’ve been holding out for a BlackBerry PlayBook with LTE connectivity, you apparently won’t have to wait much longer. MobileSyrup has scored some info that shows the long-awaited tablet will finally be landing next week, or on July 31st to be exact. That date comes by the way of Bell Canada, just one of the carriers planning to offer the LTE variant of the tablet when it does go on sale.

Say what you will about RIM’s tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, but it does have its audience. Reports have been coming in across the internet that the 16GB model of the PlayBook has become increasingly hard to find, with only existing stock remaining and no new 16GB models due to hit shelves. RIM has now confirmed the move in a statement to Engadget, saying that the 32GB and 64GB models represent better value.

BlackBerry World is well underway, with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins taking to the stage to detail the features that BlackBerry 10 will bring to the table. Based on QNX like the PlayBook OS, BB10 will bring BlackBerry up to speed and add features typically found with modern day smartphone operating systems, with couple of new twists too.

If Angry Birds Space doesn’t satisfy your BlackBerry PlayBook gaming needs, how about original PlayStation games? An enterprising developer on the Crackberry forums has created a PlayStation emulator for the PlayBook, allowing you to play a myriad of 1994 games on the 7-inch tablet. It’s still a work in progress, so some games may fail to load, but hey: it’s PlayStation on your tablet.

RIM has released an update today for its BlackBerry PlayBook OS, bringing the platform up to version 2.01.358. Although it's not nearly as big of an update as when the company released version 2.0, which finally brought the long promised native email, calendar, and contacts apps as well as Android app support, this new update does bring some welcome performance improvements and bug fixes.

RIM is planning to disable support for sideloaded apps on its BlackBerry PlayBook with a forthcoming update. The company's vice president of Developer Relations, Alec Saunders, made the announcement via Twitter, saying that the move was to avoid the rampant piracy of apps, or in his words, the "chaotic cesspool of the Android Market."

RIM addressed its stance and future policy on BlackBerry PlayBook jailbreaking in a post to the company's blog today, officially confirming that jailbreaking the PlayBook would void its warranty. RIM's opposition to customers using jailbreak tools, such as DingleBerry, isn't surprising, but it also outlined a policy of continually and aggressively patching any root access exploits.

This week the folks at Netflix have made it clear that they have no current plans to release a Netflix app to BlackBerry. At the same time, the brand new portable gaming system known as the PS Vita, aka PlayStation Vita, has received a 1.0 version of the application in the PlayStation Store. This set of moves makes it clear which groups Netflix, a giant in the streaming video business today, has faith in for the near and extended future, and spells bad news for RIM whose struggling mobile platform BlackBerry is at its worst sales point in several years.

According to Research In Motion, the folks who bring you BlackBerry, we're likely going to see a second iteration of the infamous PlayBook tablet's own unique operating system at Mobile World Congress 2012. Though the company saw less than stellar sales with the PlayBook tablet thus far, they do continue to support it through software updates and promotions such as the Free Tablet Per App program offered to Android developers just this past month. BlackBerry senior brand manager Jeff Gadway spoke at a meeting with PCmag today saying that this new operating system update will bring email, contacts, calendar, and the ability to run the Android apps just mentioned on the tablet.